“It’s now or never.” Kate stepped in front of us, raised Medusa’s head high up in the air, and pried her eyes open.
Typhon’s body wracked with an anguished howl, and then, he turned to stone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The volcano was exploding with ash and lava one second, and quiet the next. Kate zipped Medusa’s head back into the bag. None of us said anything—we just stared, speechless, at the giant stone statue of Typhon.
Then Chris stumbled, falling back onto the wall of the chariot. His skin was paler than I’d ever seen it. I couldn’t imagine how heavy the chariot was—after all, it was made of all gold. Even with us channeling him what energy we had left, he still had to use his own to keep us afloat.
“Nicole,” he said, looking at me. His voice was strained and weak, and he took a deep breath, forcing himself to continue. “Stop channeling your energy to me—you need as much of it as possible for what’s next.”
I knew what he meant—we’d discussed the plan multiple times back at Darius’s house—so I knew he was right. Reluctantly, I broke my connection with Chris.
The chariot dropped, my stomach flipping at the sudden free fall, and I couldn’t help it—I screamed.
But we only fell a few feet before Chris regained his hold.
He took another deep breath and flew the chariot toward the statue of Typhon towering up from the volcano, grunting from the effort. His clothes were soaked in sweat, and his eyes had gone bloodshot from the effort. The others still held onto him, although they looked pale and weak—they must not have much more energy to give him.
Which meant Chris was doing this mainly on his own.
Typhon was so huge that in our chariot, we were slightly smaller than the palm of his hand. We whizzed closer, and once we were in arm’s reach, I placed both of my hands on the stone. Despite feeling weak from all the energy I’d used so far, I dug down deep to think about how much I hated this monster for the danger he was going to inflict on the world, and called forth the black energy. If he’d gotten his way, he was going to destroy the entire planet. The eruption had already destroyed the nearby villages in Sicily. And that only would have been the beginning. My friends, my family, our lives—all of it would have been gone. All because of this evil, heartless monster in front of me.
I gathered as much black energy as I could—until it felt like it was about to burst out of my skin—and shot it into the stone.
Cracks appeared all over. But Kate already held her arms out, her palms facing Typhon, using her power to keep him together so the stone didn’t explode into pieces when we were right in front of it.
Chris flew us away, and I placed my hand on his arm again, giving him as much energy as I could. But after using so much black energy on Typhon, the energy I could collect and give to Chris was a mere trickle. I doubted it was doing much good, but I continued trying, since it was better than nothing.
Once there was enough distance between us and Typhon, Kate let go of her hold of the stone and the pieces shattered, hurtling into the lava and exploding into flames. The flames died down, the pieces of stone consumed by the molten rock below.
Then Kate raised her hands again and cooled the lava completely. It turned from orange to black, and the flames and hissing stopped. All that was below us now was thick, solid rock.
“The ground is safe,” she told Chris. “You can lower us down now.”
But as he lowered the chariot, he looked worse than ever. His breaths were shallow as he struggled to keep us afloat. He was hunched against the wall, using it as support, and his eyes were half shut and bloodshot. His hair stuck to his face, drenched with sweat. He didn’t look like he could keep this up for much longer.
He got us more than halfway down, but when we only had a bit further to go, the chariot tilted to the side. I screamed, gripping the ledge to keep myself from falling out.
Then he lost his hold on it completely and it tumbled to the ground.
CHAPTER THIRTY
My heart rose to my throat, and I screamed, my eyes meeting Blake’s as we were thrown from the chariot. I landed feet first and tucked my chin to my chest to roll with the fall, relaxing my body and bending my knees just like Darius had taught us in training.
Each time I hit the ground, the air was knocked out of me. Finally I came to a stop. I rolled myself over and sucked in a deep breath, staring up at the ash-filled sky. I’d survived the fall. I’d been banged up, and my head was spinning, but as far as I could tell, I didn’t have any serious injuries.
“Nicole!” someone screamed my name—Kate. “We need your help! Now!”
I moved my fingers, arms, ankles, and knees to see if anything was broken. Everything seemed okay. Which was good, because I barely had any energy left—definitely not enough to fully heal myself. And I didn’t know the extent of everyone else’s injuries. I had to save my energy so I could heal one of them if they needed it.
I jumped up—my body ached at the sudden movement—and looked out to where Kate had called for me.
Chris was sprawled on the ground nearby, and Kate was hunched over him, sobbing. Blake was hobbling over to them—his ankle must have been injured, but other than that he seemed okay. Danielle had been thrown further to the side. She was just sitting up, and she cradled her wrist, which was twisted at an unnatural angle. The chariot was all the way off to the opposite side, upended so its wheels pointed out to the volcano.
I ran toward Kate, kneeling down next to her to look at Chris. His eyes were closed, and he was so pale and still.
Too still.
“He’s not breathing,” Kate sobbed. “I found him like this, and I don’t know what happened to him when he fell, but he’s not breathing. You have to heal him. Please. Heal him.”
I nodded, and despite barely having enough energy left to channel any more of it, I placed my hands on Chris to heal him.
I felt nothing.
It was just like when I’d tried to heal Rachael back in the hydra’s cave, and when I’d tried to heal Kate after she’d been turned to stone, and when I’d tried to heal Blake after finding him slashed and mauled in a puddle of his blood in the cottage.
Chris’s spirit was gone.
I pulled my hands away from him, tears falling from my eyes when I looked up at Kate. I blinked, not knowing what I could possibly say to her. So I just shook my head and lowered my eyes, hoping she understood.
“No.” She pressed her lips together, refusing to believe me. “He didn’t even get injured in the fall. Look at him! He looks fine. He must have…” She sat back on her heels and gasped, realization dawning in her eyes. “He wasn’t strong enough to fly the chariot for that long, but he did it anyway, so we could kill Typhon,” she said slowly. “He used up all his energy to save us. No… he used up all of his energy to save the world.”
I nodded, not knowing what to say to her. I just felt… numb.
We’d succeeded in killing Typhon, but I still felt defeated. Chris had pushed his powers to the point of death so we could live. Without him, we would have fallen into that lava and died. It wasn’t fair that he was gone.
But I knew enough about the pain Kate must be feeling right now—I’d felt the same way when I found Blake dead in that cottage—to know that nothing I said could help her. Instead, I placed my hand over hers, lowering my head and letting the tears fall.
“Nicole!” someone screamed my name and shook my shoulders—Danielle. She still cradled her wrist—from this close up, it was clearly broken—and her eyes were wide in panic.
I looked at her, preparing to tell her the news about Chris, but she continued before I could.
“Hypatia’s stuck beneath the chariot,” she said in a rush. “It must have landed on her when it fell. You have to come heal her—quick!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I jolted back into focus and followed Danielle to the chariot. How had I missed this earlier? I’d seen the chariot when I’d landed, but I hadn’t seen
Hypatia near it.
As I approached, I realized why.
Hypatia was stuck around the opposite side, her lower half crushed under the golden vehicle. I couldn’t see her injuries, but given the weight of the chariot, I assumed they were grave. She was pale—she must be losing blood—and her eyes were glassy and unfocused.
Blake hunched down next to her, holding her hand and comforting her. I imagined he’d been telling her that I was on my way.
But I barely had enough energy left after using so much of it during the fight with Typhon. I couldn’t even heal my minor injuries. How was I supposed to heal someone who’d been crushed under a golden chariot?
I wasn’t sure if I could, but I had to try.
“Nicole,” Hypatia said my name, smiling when she saw me. Her voice was strained and weak—I could tell that speaking was painful for her. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
I kneeled down next to her, swallowing down fear as I placed my hand on her shoulder. “I’m glad I’m here, too.” I tried to sound brave, even though I felt more helpless than ever. “I’m going to do everything I can to heal you. But first, we need to get this chariot off of you.”
I looked up at the chariot, and doubt set into my mind. I couldn’t imagine how heavy it would be. And with Blake’s ankle injured, Danielle’s wrist broken, and all three of us running low on energy, how were we supposed to pull this off?
But we stood up and braced ourselves against the chariot, ready to push. Blake counted to three, and we put all of our weight into it.
As suspected, it didn’t budge. I grunted, pushing as hard as I could, but it still didn’t move an inch. My head spun from the effort, spots dancing in front of my eyes, and I leaned against the chariot to catch my breath. I didn’t have enough energy to push anymore.
Once I could see straight again, I stepped back and lowered my arms, looking helplessly at the chariot.
“We need Chris,” Blake said. “Hopefully he has enough energy left over to help us out.”
My heart dropped at the realization that Blake had been here with Hypatia the whole time. He still didn’t know about Chris.
“Chris didn’t make it.” I dropped my hands to my sides, fresh tears forming in my eyes. “He used up all of his energy flying the chariot. He held on until the very end. When he lost control and we fell, it must have been because…” My throat thickened with tears, and I swallowed, unable to continue.
“Because he had no more energy left at all,” Danielle finished my sentence.
Blake nodded and said nothing, apparently taking it all in. “He died a hero,” he finally said. “We’ll make sure that he’s never forgotten. It’s what he would want.”
“It is.” I sniffed, wiping the tears off my cheeks.
“We can’t do anything for Chris anymore,” Danielle reminded us softly. “We have to focus on who we can help—Hypatia. Chris wouldn’t want us standing here crying over him when we could be saving her life.”
I nodded and looked at the chariot again. There had to be another solution. Maybe we were approaching this from the wrong angle.
But as I walked around it, I saw that the land it was on was completely flat. Once I came back around, I kneeled back down on the ground, no longer having enough energy to stand.
Pushing the chariot to the side would have been so much easier if it were on a hill.
I snapped my head up at the realization, hope surging through my chest. “Kate,” I said her name, even though she was too far away too hear me. “If she can create a rift in the ground on the other side of the chariot, it’ll be pulled down by its own weight. Gravity will take over. We won’t have to push it.”
Danielle’s eyes lit up, and she hurried to fetch Kate before I could say another word. I was grateful for that, because I barely had enough energy to keep myself sitting up, let alone to run. In the meantime, I held Hypatia’s hand, leaning against the chariot and trying my best to comfort her.
Danielle returned quickly with Kate. Kate looked shell-shocked by all that had just happened, but the moment she saw Hypatia trapped beneath the chariot, she snapped back into focus.
“I can fix this,” she said to Hypatia. “You’re going to be just fine.”
Hypatia was too injured by now to speak—she must be losing blood fast—but she met Kate’s eyes, her lips curving up into a small smile of thanks.
Kate held out her hands, and the ground rumbled, a crack forming on the opposite side of the chariot. It teetered on the ledge, and Blake gave it another push.
As predicted, gravity took over and it fell in, revealing the horrible remains of Hypatia’s lower body.
Her legs were crushed, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The chariot had gashed her abdomen, and now that the chariot wasn’t holding everything together, her intestines were slowly making their way out of her stomach. I gasped, reaching for them to push them back in, but I had no idea where they supposed to go. Blood covered my hands—blood was everywhere. It was coming out too quickly to stop it.
Spots danced in front of my eyes again, but I took a deep breath, forcing myself to focus. “I’m going to need your help,” I told Blake and Danielle. “I used up too much energy in the fight with Typhon. I don’t think… I know I don’t have enough left to heal her.”
“I used most of mine in the fight and when we were channeling it to Chris,” Blake said. “But I’ll help as much as I can.”
“Me too,” Danielle said, and both of them put their hands on my arms, ready to channel what they could of their remaining energy.
With both hands pressed against Hypatia’s stomach, I reached out to the Universe, trying to feel the white energy around me. It was faint—barely within reach. But somehow, I pulled some of it toward me. A tiny bit, and then a tiny more. It was a trickle entering my body—but it was better than nothing.
“What’s happening?” Danielle asked, her voice worried. “Shouldn’t it be working by now?”
I said nothing, not wanting to break my concentration. If I did, I worried that I would lose the small amount of white energy that I had managed to collect.
But the trickle was getting less and less, and given Hypatia’s injuries, we were running out of time. I had to use what I had gathered so far and hope for the best.
I sent the small amount of white energy that I’d collected into her body, although I knew before opening my eyes that it wouldn’t be enough. The amount I’d been able to collect had only been enough to heal a few scratches. The gash in her stomach hadn’t healed—it looked the exact same as it had before I’d tried to heal her. Her intestines were only staying in place because I was holding them there. And the pool of blood around her body was growing. It had traveled so far that by now, I was kneeling in it.
“It’s not working,” I said, my voice cracking. “We have to get to the hospital. Hypatia—do you have enough energy left to create a portal?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but then her eyes glazed over, and she was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
I used my pendant to call to Apollo for help. He didn’t come for us, but he stopped by Darius’s and told Jason to create a portal for us to come home. I barely remember walking through the portal—I was in so much shock—but we did bring Chris and Hypatia’s bodies with us.
The next few days passed in a blur. My family tried to cheer me up over Easter, but the time spent with them didn’t feel real. It was like I was separated from my body, looking down on everything as I pretended to act as normal as I could manage. All I could think about was Chris’s upcoming funeral. The only small comfort I had was that after his great sacrifice, he would almost surely be sent to Elysium—the Greek equivalent to Heaven.
On the night of the funeral, Blake, Danielle, Kate, and I returned to Chris’s gravestone. He’d been buried next to the statue of Zeus, which was appropriate, given that Zeus was his godly ancestor. The cemetery had been packed that afternoon during the service, but now, it was only the four of us.
We brought the Book of Shadows with us, because despite defeating Typhon, our mission wasn’t over. There was one last thing for us to do. But to get started on that task, we needed to ask the Book of Shadows an important question. We wanted Chris to be with us for that, and this—asking at his burial spot—was the closest we would get to that happening.
Kate brought out the Book of Shadows, placed it on top of Chris’s gravestone, and rested her hands on the cover. “Ready?” she asked, looking around at each of us.
We all nodded in response.
“How do we seal the portal to Kerberos?” she asked, her voice echoing through the cemetery.
The book glowed, and she gasped, yanking her hands off the cover. It opened on its own, the pages flipping themselves, as if they were being controlled by the wind—or as if possessed by a spirit. The glow illuminated our faces, and we stared at the Book, waiting for whatever it wanted to show us.
But the Book didn’t select a page. Instead, it slammed itself shut.
The air behind it glimmered, and standing before us was Nyx herself.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Nyx wore the same black gown that she’d had on the first time we met her—the billowing skirt full of sparkling stars that twinkled with her every movement. Her skin was as pale as moonlight, her hair dark as night.
“I received your question,” she said, glancing at the Book. “I have much to tell you, and I thought that answering through the pages would be far from satisfactory. So, I decided to pay you a visit myself.”
“You’ve been the one answering our questions through the Book this entire time?” Kate asked.
“Yes,” Nyx answered. “As you know, thousands of years ago I filled a comet with my magic and sent it across the sky, creating the portal to Kerberos and giving the Olympian gods the strength to lock the Titans inside. But portals between worlds need more than the magic of the gods to keep them closed. They also need the magic of mortals who can bind them to the planet—in this case, to Earth. And so, I chose five mortals for this task and arranged that they all ended up in this town.”
Elementals 5: The Hands of Time Page 9